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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Packed Agenda For Trump-Putin Meeting; Russia Ramps Up Spying In U.S.; South Korean Leader Renews Offer To Talk With North. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired July 07, 2017 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:30:00] MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: We have it all covered this morning in Hamburg, Washington, Moscow, and Seoul.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Russian state media is saying the two have met. The bilateral meeting is still on but they have now met, so this is all --

MARQUEZ: They've shaken hands.

ROMANS: -- underway. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

MARQUEZ: And I'm Miguel Marquez. Thirty minutes past the hour, 11:30 in the morning in Hamburg, Germany. We want to welcome our viewers here in the U.S. and all around the world.

It is one of the most eagerly anticipated meetings of world leaders in decades. This morning, President Trump sits down with President -- Russian President Vladimir Putin as the G20 summit gets underway in Germany. We're told the pair have actually already greeted each other in the G20, according to the Russian media.

Their bilateral meeting later -- comes later today after President Trump said Russia should stop destabilizing activities, but then minutes later refused to conclude that Russia meddled in the U.S. election.

ROMANS: New CNN reporting this morning says Russia has even stepped up its spying efforts in the U.S. More on that in a moment.

But for the latest, let's turn to White House correspondent Sara Murray. She is live in Hamburg. Sara, President Trump meets face-to- face in just a few hours. What do we expect?

SARA MURRAY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. The two leaders, this morning, have met, they've shaken hands, but the real substance is going to come later. Now, it's not going to be a particularly long meeting but it will be an intimate one.Obviously, President Trump, President Putin will be there in addition to some of their top diplomats, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Now, leading up to this meeting the two world leaders have not had the nicest things to say about each other. Putin slammed U.S. sanctions against Russia, as well as President Trump's trade policies. As for Trump, when he was speaking in Poland yesterday he chided Russia for its role in conflicts in the Ukraine, as well as in Syria.

But, of course, the big question, the pressing question, will President Trump bring up Russia's interference in the 2016 election? When he was talking about this yesterday Trump questioned intelligence from our own U.S. intelligence agencies and suggested that maybe other countries were trying to hack the election in addition to Russia.

It seems pretty clear that where President Trump's head is today is on that election. He's offering up harsher words for former Democratic opponents than he is for Putin at this moment, taking aim at John Podesta, who was a Clinton campaign staffer, and saying "Everyone here is talking about why John Podesta refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA. Disgraceful!" So that's where the president's head is at this morning.

And, of course, the G20 summit is here in Hamburg and it's playing out against the backdrop of intense protests. Yesterday, there were about 12,000 protesters, about 111 German police officers who were injured. We've already seen skirmishes starting up this morning, protesters setting cars on fire and even attacking a police helicopter. Back to you.

ROMANS: G20 meetings are -- every time, they are a target of protesters -- anti-globalization protesters, mostly.

All right, Sara Murray for us in Hamburg. Thank you.

MARQUEZ: Well, there's plenty on the agenda as presidents Trump and Putin meet at the G20. So much, in fact, that the Russians were saying the limited time available might make it hard to delve into Russia's aggression in the Ukraine and Crimea. That still leaves Syria, ISIS, NATO sanctions and much more.

Senior international correspondent Ivan Watson joins us now live from Moscow. Ivan, looking at this from both sides, what would constitute a successful meeting for the Russians and what would constitute a successful meeting for the U.S.?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Just the fact that they're meeting, that's a big deal, Miguel, because you haven't had a U.S. and Russian president meet since September of 2015.

Now, I just got off the conference call with Putin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. He confirmed that Trump and Putin did shake hands on the sidelines of the G20 and they both told each other they'll see each other soon for this much-anticipated bilateral, face-to-face, sit-down conversation.

Now, the Kremlin has said that the U.S.-Russian relations have been, effectively, at zero level. They've been hurt, additionally, by the fact that the U.S. slapped additional sanctions against dozens of Russian entities just in the last couple of weeks in relation to Russia's activities in eastern Ukraine and its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. One potential area where the two leaders could see eye-to-eye, Miguel, is in that grinding conflict in Syria. The U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the two militaries, U.S. and Russia, have had some success in activating kind of deconfliction zones in Syria and he floated the idea of establishing no-fly zones. Russia's top diplomat has responded, saying that that would be a step in the right direction.

The Kremlin says just getting these two leaders into the same room would be good for international stability, though there are still a host of areas where, traditionally, Russia and the U.S. have not seen eye-to-eye -- Miguel and Christine.

[05:35:09] MARQUEZ: All right, Ivan Watson for us in Moscow. Thank you very much.

ROMANS: All right, let's bring back CNN political analyst Josh Rogin, columnist for "The Washington Post." Good morning.

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON POST: Good morning.

ROMANS: So we know that they've shaken hands on the sidelines here. They said see you later, we're going to have a talk -- a talk later. What is it that the Russians need for a successful meeting and what it is that the Americans need for a successful meeting -- for a win, for a deal?

ROGIN: Sure. Well, you know, first of all, we should say that just the fact that they're having this meeting is a win for the Russian side. It's something that Putin has wanted ever since Donald Trump became president. So if they just have a meeting and nothing goes wrong, that's a win for the Russians.

It elevates them back to great power status to be standing alongside the President of the United States. The photos, the pageantry, the fact that now we're dealing with them on a leader-to-leader basis. That's a return to the sort of level that they envision themselves in.

For the United States, it's more complicated, OK? So, you know, for Trump and for the people around him a win would be -- to make some progress on the issues that they feel are important is, as Ivan said, Syria, perhaps Ukraine, perhaps the fight against ISIS. They want to show that their overall drive to improve U.S.-Russia relations can produce some benefits.

That's going to be a tough lift in a 30-minute meeting, half of which is eaten up by translations and pleasantries and what is sure to be a Russian list of grievances for the United States dating back to World War II and the Cold War. And so, you know, that's what -- that's what the president wants.

What a lot of people inside the administration want and what a lot of people in Washington want is for the president to make clear the U.S.' position on Russian hacking, and meddling, and interference, and aggression. It's also what a lot of the Europeans want, you know. As the

president tours around Europe, the Europeans are getting a very mixed message. On the one hand, in his planned speeches he says that we need to push back against Russian aggression, and then in his off-the- cuff remarks he disputes the notion that Russia interfered in the election at all. So --

MARQUEZ: Yes.

ROGIN: -- what we -- what we should want is some sort of clarity on the U.S. stance towards Russia. That would be a win, as far as I'm concerned.

MARQUEZ: Given so -- how much so with the tension is on the meeting that both sides will probably be on their best behavior and be --

ROGIN: Sure.

MARQUEZ: -- perhaps on the defense, as well.

I want to turn to that -- the U.S. elections and Russian meddling. We have new CNN reporting saying that the Russians are rebuilding -- they're reconstituting their efforts to spy in the U.S.

The former director of National Intelligence, Jim Clapper, saying that they're laying the battlefield for 2018 and 2020. Here's what he also said about Russia and its efforts to rebuild spying in the U.S. on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: It gives him, I think, reassurance and also, I think it actually encourages him to keep doing what he's doing. And if these reports, which I have no -- you know, I have no doubt about -- about their stepped-up pace of intelligence collection in this country, I think bear that out. So as long as we don't push back with the Russians and take the necessary measures to foreclose, they're going to continue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: So this, clearly, comes from a guy who is not privy to current intelligence but was just a few months ago. There will be great pressure for President Trump to bring this up with the Russians. I take it it's not likely he's going to.

ROGIN: It's clear that the president doesn't share Clapper's view or the view of most of the intelligence agencies, most of Congress, most of the National Security community, right, but this is not just an issue of punishing Russia or raising this with Putin, you know. This is an issue of real core national security risk and concern, OK?

It's not -- we can predict that the Russians are going to replenish their spy ranks. Of course, they're going to do that. It's not just the Russians. Every country is spying all the time. Every country's hacking all the time -- ROMANS: Yes.

ROGIN: -- as much as they can. Of course, the Russians took it one step further by releasing all the information and combining it with a massive propaganda campaign that favored one candidate over the other, and that's horrendous. But overall, it's not just about, you know, confronting Russia. It's about building a system, a resilience, a defense, perhaps even an offense in the United States that can prevent this from happening again.

And if we don't do that, then it will happen and that will have grave consequences for our systems, for our institutions --

ROMANS: Yes.

ROGIN: -- and for our democracy.

So let's -- you know, let's acknowledge that the president is never going to be as tough on Russia in this regard as most of us would want him to be. At the same time, it would be nice -- it would be great -- it's, actually, imperative for the United States to get its act together --

ROMANS: Right.

ROGIN: -- and to prepare because whether or not Russia increases its number of spies, this problem is not going away anytime soon.

ROMANS: And, everyone spies, everyone spies.

ROGIN: Exactly.

ROMANS: But this spying in conjunction with the disinformation campaign, the Russians do that so well. We saw it in the French election, we've seen it again and again in European politics and policy.

[05:40:04] ROGIN: Exactly.

ROMANS: I mean, the Russian disinformation campaign has been very, very successful. So there's that -- there's disinformation.

There's also intimidation and I just want to -- I want to play a little sound bite from George Bush -- the former president, George Bush, about his meeting, one-on-one, with Vladimir Putin, and I think it gives you a little color -- a little sense of the kind of personality that Donald Trump is up against.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I introduced Putin to Barney. You remember Barney, the little Scottish terrier?

ELLEN DEGENERES, HOST, THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW: Yes, yes.

BUSH: The little guy with legs, and he kind of dissed him. He looked at him like you think that's a dog? Anyway, so --

(LAUGHTER)

-- a year later -- a year later, Putin says would you like to meet my dog and out comes a giant hound kind of loping across the birch-lined yard and Putin looks at me and says bigger, stronger, and faster than Barney. And, you know, it speaks volumes when you listen to what somebody says and -- so, in other words, he's got a chip on his shoulder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: He had a smile on his face but he was really making a point here.

Do you think that Vladimir Putin will flatter Donald Trump because in many senses the Russians think they've already gotten what they wanted, right? That they have -- they've really consumed the American political process at the moment, or do you think that he'll be a strong man and talk tough?

ROGIN: Yes, I mean, I think he's going to try to work him as an intelligence officer would with a potential asset, all right? He's going to try to manipulate the President of the United States into doing the things that he wants him to do, and the tactics that he might use to do that are a range of tactics.

It might include some flattery, it might include some threats, it might include some tough talks, it might include some incentives. Some like, oh, let's make a deal or here's what I can give you or here's why you should do this. It's good for you and good for me. It's a combination of tactics that any intelligence operative would use to convince an asset to do the things that they want to do.

Now, if President Trump -- and he's being well-briefed, right? It's not as if he doesn't have a team of people around him who will understand this dynamic. If he can sort of recognize that and parry against that and sort of stand up for the things that he wants to stand up for while agreeing with Putin on the things that he's inclined to agree with him on, then that's fine. You know, that's sort of a mental chess game, right, that they're both going to be playing.

The problem is, of course, is that when you get President Trump into these unscripted situations, especially when there aren't a lot of advisers around, he says a lot of crazy stuff and he does a lot of crazy stuff, OK? We saw this in the last meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador where he gave away the intelligence, he was super chummy, right?

So there's an effort inside the U.S. government to educate the President of the United States about what he's about to face, OK, and he'll have that education. What he chooses to do with that education, nobody knows because nobody can predict what President Trump is going to do inside this meeting. President Trump may not know what he's going to do inside this meeting so there's that risk. So, you now, I don't know exactly which tactic Putin's going to take

but he's working the president, right, and he's the best at that.

ROMANS: Yes.

ROGIN: The president better be ready.

MARQUEZ: Yes. Well, the game is already on, clearly. The Russians saying that Putin is looking forward to the meeting with President Trump despite the fact that Trump knocked him in Poland, so already a little bit of positioning there.

ROGIN: Exactly.

MARQUEZ: Josh Rogin for us this morning. Thank you very much.

ROGIN: Thank you.

MARQUEZ: So far, no clear strategy has slowed North Korea's nuclear program. Now, one leader says he'll meet Kim Jong Un anytime, anywhere. We'll tell you who. We have a report live from Seoul.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:47:43] ROMANS: All right, you've got less than three hours until the June jobs report comes out and we'll see if America's job market remains strong. Will it be enough to meet the president's promise of 25 million jobs over the next decade? That is a pretty big claim.

Economists expect 172,000 jobs added in June. That's a great number but it's not the average 208 a month the president will need to meet his goal, so the unemployment rate should remain at a pretty low 4.3 percent, the lowest since 2001.

You know, economists think this is near full employment, meaning there aren't really many more available workers waiting and looking for a job so job gains will probably start to slow. They already are. Jobs growth from February to May was the slowest in three years. That's because the U.S. has been adding jobs for 80 consecutive months and that streak cannot last forever. So look, you can see a slower pace of job gains so far this year than the prior couple of years.

Still, there's plenty to be happy about. American wages are expected to rise, so be looking for that number. American manufacturing is reviving. The U.S. added 55,000 factory jobs this year. That's the largest gain since 2014.

Strong global growth and a weak U.S. dollar are making U.S. exports more competitive here.

MARQUEZ: Now, a scare for passengers on a Delta Airlines flight headed from Seattle to Beijing. Flight 129 turned back shortly after take-off last night when a passenger assaulted a flight attendant in first class. The plane returned to Sea-Tac airport under a Defense Department escort. Delta says the suspect was restrained by other passengers on board and

taken into custody upon landing. The flight attendant and passenger were injured and taken to the hospital. Both are expected to be fine. Flight 129 is back in the air right now, expected to land in Beijing this afternoon, right around the same time the suspect is due in federal court.

North Korea, a big topic at the G20 and now a new global leader says he'swilling to meet with Kim Jong Un and it isn't President Trump. We're live in Seoul.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:53:53] MARQUEZ: The new president of South Korea is still willing to meet with the North's Kim Jong Un despite rising tensions and other condemnation of the North's first intercontinental ballistic missile test.

President Moon Jae-in saying he's ready to talk anytime, anyplace if the conditions are right. Yesterday, Moon met China's president about North Korea hours after meeting with President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

We want to bring in CNN's David McKenzie. He is live for us in Seoul. David, any takeaways from these meetings ahead of the G20 and where this North Korean issue may be headed for all those countries trying to get ahead of it?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miguel, certainly all those countries do want to get ahead of it. How they do that is the big question.

And you did have President Moon there diverging, I would say, somewhat from the public posture of the U.S. president, saying that he would meet anytime, anywhere, given the right conditions, with the dictator from North Korea, Kim Jong Un. He did say -- providing some sweeteners, as it were, for that -- saying he didn't want to see the collapse of the North Korea regime. That he wasn't looking for some kind of typical unification of the Korean Peninsula when the North is folded in the South.

[05:55:10] So, certainly trying to appeal to the North Koreans there but also saying that any kind of precursor to talks would be for Pyongyang to freeze its march toward becoming a nuclear power. Just today, they said, out of state media, that's just not an option and it's not on the negotiating table.

You had these big celebrations in Pyongyang -- a big propaganda push with military and party leaders celebrating, in their way, to the launch of that ICBM earlier this week on U.S. Independence Day. So there is this big gap to try and get people to the table. I don't see it happening anytime soon -- Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Yes, I think that is a very big question out there, obviously.

David McKenzie for us in Seoul. Thank you.

ROMANS: All right, it's almost that time of the day, 55 minutes past the hour. Let's get a check on "CNN Money" this morning.

Global stock markets are down after Wall Street closed lower. The Dow shedding more than 150 points. All 11 sectors in the S&P 500 fell.

Bond yields are rising. Yields increase as bond prices fall. Investors have been -- have been -- have been selling off yields as the Fed reduces monetary stimulus. It's a sign the Central Bank thinks the U.S. economy is strong.

We're going to get a new gauge of strength in the economy today. The June jobs report comes out later this morning. One hundred and seventy-two thousand net new jobs is the expectation.

Eighteen Democratic attorneys general are suing the Education Secretary Betsy DeVos because she delayed an Obama-era rule protecting student borrowers. The rule helps those hurt by for-profit schools.

Many of these schools have been accused of loading students with debt and then giving them worthless degrees, lying about how many of their graduates get jobs after degrees.DeVos says she's delaying the rule to review and improve it but the suit claims she is siding with for- profit school executives over students.

Americans currently hold $1.34 trillion in student loan debt. It's a lot and it's growing. Those students who graduated with debt in 2016 had an average $37,000 in debt. Ten years ago that was -- the average was about $20,000. It's a, you know -- gosh, it is just a big burden still.

MARQUEZ: Not fun to get out of school with all that money.

ROMANS: No, it's not. All right, thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.

MARQUEZ: And I'm Miguel Marquez. "NEW DAY" starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump gearing up for his first high- stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

REP. TED LIEU (D-CA), FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: He needs to go in with a list of demands. Russia should be making concessions to the U.S., not the other way around.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anything that makes Trump look at little weak makes Putin look stronger.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it could very well have been Russia, but I think it could well have been other countries.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Russia definitely did try to influence the campaign.

CLAPPER: There's absolutely no doubt about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Russian spies are ramping up their intelligence gathering efforts in the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not surprised. The Russians feel as if the Cold War's back on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's safe to say now that President Trump is an enabler of Russia's interference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Friday, July 7th, 6:00 here in New York. Alisyn is off. Poppy Harlow joining me. Thank you, my friend.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good Friday.

CUOMO: I will try not to sneeze on you.

On "The Starting Line," the high-stakes meeting between presidents Trump and Putin at the G20 summit. The first face-to-face between the two men just hours away. Will President Trump address Russia's election meddling with Putin? Big question.

Now, ahead of the meet, CNN has learned that since the election, Russian spies are stepping up their intelligence gathering efforts in the U.S. Officials says Russia has been emboldened by the lack of a strong response from the current and previous administrations.

HARLOW: And there is a backlash over President Trump's comments slamming the U.S. Intelligence Community while he was on foreign soil, again suggesting he doesn't fully believe his own intelligence on Russia's role meddling in the 2016 election. Former director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, among those pushing back hard on the president's assertion.

Meantime, Defense Secretary James Mattis says North Korea's launch of that ICBM capable of striking parts of the U.S. does not bring the United States closer to war. The White House insisting diplomacy is still the first response and that it hasn't yet failed with Pyongyang.

We have all of it covered for you this Friday morning. Let's begin with our Sara Murray who is live at the G20 in Hamburg. What are you hearing as a key, key meeting is about to take place?

MURRAY: Well, good morning, Poppy.

Presidents Trump and Putin have actually already met this morning -- they shook hands -- but the substantive meeting comes later and you can bet that everything from their body to their public comments, if they make any, will be scrutinized as the world awaits this highly anticipated meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what, folks? That's called an asset.